you go at it
with a weak heart and come to grief. I don't advise the last anyway. It's
so futile--as well as being beastly humiliating."

She smiled at him. "Thank you, Charles! A very illuminating parable!
Well, I don't contemplate the first--as you know. I must have a try at
the second. And if I smash,--it's horribly difficult, you know--I may
smash--" Sudden anguish looked at him out of her eyes, and a hard
shiver went through her as she turned away. "Oh, Charles!" she said. "Why
did I ever come to this place?"

He made a frightful grimace that was somehow sympathetic and shrugged
his shoulders. "If you smash, my dearly-beloved, your faithful comrade
will have the priceless privilege of picking up the pieces. Why you came
here is another matter. I have sometimes dared to wonder if the proximity
of my poor castle--No? Not that? Ah, well then, it must be that our
destinies are guided by the same star. To my mind that is an even more
thrilling reflection than the other. Think of it, my _Juliette_, you and
I--helplessly kicking like flies in the cream-jug--being drawn to one
another, irresistibly and in spite of ourselves, even leaving some of our
legs behind us in the desperate struggle to be calm and reasonable and
quite--quite moral! And then a sudden violent storm in the cream-jug, and
we are flung into each other's unwilling arms where we cling for safety
till the crack of doom when all the milk is spilt! It's no use fighting
the stars, you know. It really isn't. The only rational course is to make
the stars fight for you."

He peered round at her to see how she was taking his foolery; and in a
moment impulsively she wheeled back, the distress banished from her face,
the old steadfast courage in its place.

"Oh, Charles, thou king of clowns!" she said. "What a weird
comforter you are!"

"King of philosophers you mean!" he retorted. "It's taken me a long while
to achieve my wisdom. I don't often throw my pearls about in this
reckless fashion."

She laughed. "How dare you say that to me? But I suppose I ought to be
humbly grateful. I am as a matter of fact intensely so."

"Oh, no!" he said. "Not that--from you!"

His eyes dwelt upon her with a sort of humorous tenderness; she met
them without embarrassment. "You've done me good, Charles," she said.
"Somehow I knew you would--knew I could count on you. You will go on
standing by?"

He executed a deep bow, his hand upon his heart. "_Maintenant et
toujours,